Today while I was on the eliptical machine, I tuned into a morning show segment featuring a person who was proudly discussing the fact that he has succeeded in “outsourcing” (as he called it) almost every part of his life, including reading bedtime stories to his young son.
While I’m all for outsourcing non-essential functions, this is going a little bit too far. Yes, plenty of people hire nannies and babysitters. However at least there is some type of relationship between the caregiver and the child. Parents still need to find regular ways to personally connect with their children. Sharing stories from books and from your own experiences is a wonderful way to do this. Hiring interchangeable story tellers sends many messages, including ones that convey that developing a personal relationship isn’t all that important.
If you want to build stronger bonds with others, both in life and in business, keep the bedtime stories at home and maintain essential relationship building activities in-house. From my own experience as a parent and as an executive, I can tell you that the results are well worth the investment.
